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Zimmer: “This spring isn’t about winning the Super Bowl. This spring is about trying to correct the mistakes we made last year. We had 16 penalties in the red zone last year that caused us to not score points. We lost four games by six points or less. All these little things add up, and that’s what I’m trying to get this team to understand.”

Zimmer: “I think they are in a good place right now. Sometimes you get out here and you’re just running plays, but you’re not learning how to play the game. So far we’ve progressed to the part now where we are trying to learn how to play games. We are trying to learn how to play at the end of games, to play with the clock, without the clock, with the ball, without the ball. I think that is going to be important as we come down here until we start getting into the real stuff.”

Edwards proved that he could call a great game against Dallas. Zimmer needs to trust his DC, and focus on the game management. Nothing says Zimmer can't do his normal thing in the game prep Monday through Saturday, but on game day, he has too many other responsibilities that are showing to be weaknesses._________________

Edwards proved that he could call a great game against Dallas. Zimmer needs to trust his DC, and focus on the game management. Nothing says Zimmer can't do his normal thing in the game prep Monday through Saturday, but on game day, he has too many other responsibilities that are showing to be weaknesses.

I agree with doing it now, but I do think Edwards was not ready for the task a couple of years ago, but now going into his 4th year with Zimmer, he knows the ins and outs of what Zimmer wants._________________

Bradford: "[Coach Zimmer and I] would text almost every day after practice, and he would just give me some thoughts about what he saw from the offense, what the defense was trying to do, things we could take advantage of, things they were trying to take away. Was a blitz designed to work against a certain protection? How could the blitz be picked up? What routes were coverages trying to take away from the offense? Is there a route that finds a weak spot in a particular coverage? Are there tips that would give away certain things before the ball is snapped? Having those conversations with someone on the other side of the ball, especially with someone like Coach Zimmer who has that much knowledge, and to really be able to talk defense and understand conceptually what it is they were trying to do, I think I’ve learned a lot in the past couple of weeks about coverages, blitzes and really everything that a defense tries to do to stop an offense."

“It was just nice to hear his opinion. When he’s here, we’ve obviously had conversations, but when he was away from the building, it was still nice to know that he was watching the offense and making sure we were doing things right. Those texts were really nice.”

Zimmer is still having some trouble with his problematic right eye, and might not be cleared to fly back to Minnesota from his offseason home in Kentucky. He told Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the gas bubble which stabilizes his retina was supposed to dissolve two weeks ago, but hasn’t yet. He’s going to see doctors in Cincinnati next week to determine whether he can resume flying, or whether he’ll have to drive back to the Twin Cities.

“There’s no lens in the eye, so all I can see is shapes,” Zimmer said. “Once this bubble goes out, I can get a contact supposedly to see.”

Doctors could insert a permanent lens, but he waved that off, saying: “Which we’re not going to do that. We’re not having more surgeries.”

Vikings head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman said Zimmer’s eyesight should return close to 20/20 with a contact lens.

Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press reports that Zimmer passed another test during that visit and was given the green light to fly as a result. He’s expected to be fitted for contact lenses after ruling out surgery to have a permanent lens inserted on his right eye.

Zimmer is due back in Minnesota later this week. Rookies are due to report to camp on July 23 and the whole squad will be in on July 26.